One of the first steps you take when you are figuring out your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

In Downers Grove you can determine when you can plant sweet corn by checking out the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Sweet corn

Frost tolerance for sweet corn:	Tolerant of a very small amount of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 3 weeks before last frost.

You can plant sweet corn just a tiny bit earlier in the year because they do ok in moderate cold.

The earliest that you can plant sweet corn in Downers Grove is March. However, you really should wait until April if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant sweet corn and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your sweet corn may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your sweet corn indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on April 15 in Downers Grove. It might get as low as -15°F during the coldest months of winter.

Always keep in mind that USDA zone info for Downers Grove is not always accurate and the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Downers Grove it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to cover your sweet corn if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Downers Grove

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-15°F
Highest Expected Low	-10°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -15°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -10°F.

Plants to Grow in Downers Grove

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Downers Grove.